Loy Norrix captured the boys game 60-53, while taking the girls contest, 67-25.

Loy Norrix 60, Sturgis 53 (boys)

The Trojans led 45-31 heading into the fourth quarter and saw their lead evaporate in the final eight minutes aided by the Knights turning up their pressure.

"They went from a zone press to contain to a man-to-man with more intensity that caused turnovers," Sturgis coach Keith Kurowski said. "Their defense is what got their offense going."

Bishop Robinson, the Knight's All-State player, took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 of his game-high 26 points. He had eight points in the first minute of the period with a pair of dunks, the second coming after a steal to trim the advantage to 45-39.

"The fourth quarter they played the game at their tempo," Kurowski said. "I didn't do a good enough job getting our guys ready for their pressure."

Sturgis' Chance Stewart, who finished the game with 20 points and 21 rebounds, temporarily slowed down the Knights comeback with five straight points. He converted a three-point play getting an inbounds-pass from Patrick Haas, then added a pair of free throws 40 seconds later to push the lead back to 50-39.

Stewart hit two more free throws with 3:26 left to put the Sturgis lead at 53-49. The Trojans were scoreless the rest of the way.

"I think fatigue caught up to us a little," Kurowski said. "We had two starters foul out and some kids playing in unfamiliar situations."

Loy Norrix got a 3-pointer from Davian Phillips to cut the lead to one and moments later, Robinson got another steal and slam to put his team ahead, 54-53, with 2:52 to go.

The Trojans had a couple of chances to take the lead, but were unable to convert. The Knights pulled away to the final margin hitting 6-of-8 free throws down the stretch after Sturgis was forced to foul.

For the game, Loy Norrix was 15-for-31 for the game, while Sturgis was 9-for-16.

The Knights scored the first for points of the game, but a three-point play by Stewart knotted the game at 5-5, just past the mid-point of the first quarter. It came after Eduardo Portillo grabbed an offensive rebound, the Trojans missed on the putback, but Stewart grabbed another offensive rebound and scored.

Sturgis closed the period with a basket by Portillo and a pair by Stewart to take a 11-7 lead.

A triple by Jalen Cox, off a feed from Tyler Bennett, pushed the Trojan margin to 20-10 with five minutes left in the second stanza. Cox hit another trey just before the buzzer to give Sturgis a 30-17 edge heading to the break.

Page 2 of 3 - Sturgis built the largest margin of the game, 45-26 with 1:18 remaining in the third quarter after a drive to the basket by Haas.

"We were able to control the tempo, play our game," Kurowski said. "We were able to execute our game plan for the first three quarters."

The Knights execution in the fourth quarter made the difference.

Cox finished with 15 points for the Trojans, Bennett tossed in seven, Haas chipped in with four, Jack Scheske added three and Seven Jones and Portillo each had two.

Darrion Mullen threw in 14 for the Knights, while Phillips finished with 12.

Loy Norrix 67, Sturgis 25 (girls)

A short-handed Trojan squad faced an uphill battle coming into the game and it got tougher as another player went down.

"Loy Norrix is one of the best teams in our league," Sturgis coach Brian Beebe said."We were without our tallest and fastest kid tonight and it showed."

Out was 6-1 sophomore Rachel Anderson, who was injured late in the game at Three Rivers on Tuesday. During the game, freshman Kayla Thornton went out with an injury in the first half and did not return shortening the team to seven players.

Despite the lopsided score, Beebe felt his team did some good things defensively.

"In the first half, when we were in the game, I think our press actually slowed them up," he said. "I think our press was very good."

But is was Loy Norrix's top two players who took over the game. Senior Sierra James scored 23 and sophomore Aviance Alexander added 20.

"Ten (James) is the best guard in our league, she's a stud," Beebe said. "Three (Alexander) is an incredible athlete. We let them do what ever they wanted, they're good players and you can't do that with good players."

The Knights led 23-9 after one quarter and 37-14 at halftime. It was 58-20 heading into the final quarter.

"The kids were pretty frustrated after the game, as well they should be," Beebe said. "It was good that they just didn't walk in giggly and smiley. We talked about what we needed to do to win games."

But Beebe added that with nine players — three juniors, three sophomores and three freshman — it is on the job training for the Trojan squad.

"We're not only learning how to play the game together, we're learning at the varsity level," he said. "The kids understand we're not doing the right things right now on both sides of the ball. The kids know we need to be better, they're frustrated, but they know we need to win on Tuesday. That's our whole mentality right now, learn from the last one and just understand what playing together and what playing at this level feels like."

Page 3 of 3 - Ariana George led the Trojans with 10 points, Nicollette Nelson tossed in eight, Marissa Parker added four and Madison Shepherd had a free throw.